Yep, George Lucas is back with an animated feature from the Star Wars universe, this time telling a story that takes place between Episodes II and III, which will set up the upcoming Clone Wars TV series. If this all sounds oddly familiar, that's probably because the original Clone Wars animated TV series came out in 2003. Apparently this time it's 3D instead of 2D.

Her point is fairly simple: The movie (and book) are about basic heresy and anyone interested in these questions is more interested in bashing Christianity than signing up. Therefore dialogue is pointless. Outright boycotts and protests never work and just end up giving the object of Christians' wrath more publicity. The only thing Hollywood understands is ticket sales, so Nicolosi recommends we vote with tickets and vote for a different movie. She recommends the computer-animated Over the Hedge.

As if forcing diehard fans to buy another copy of the digitally altered versions isn't bad enough, the sets will supposedly only be available through Dec. 31.

It's a fun site, though it's too bad it loads so slowly and they don't let you download the movies you create.

"It Sucks To Be Frodo" has to be one of the best, simply for the sake of originality, though the Frodo/Sam as lovers trailer is more well done. And the Gollum trailer has the makings of a great gross out comedy. (link via Kottke)

And while we're talking about rehashes, how about Buffy the Vampire Slayer as Friends (link via InFuze).

Or you can just head over to iTunes now and download a free copy of the pilot.

That nigh-invulernible superhero in blue spandex is finally coming to DVD. The original cartoon version of The Tick is rumored to be released on DVD in 2006 by Disney.

Can you say, "right on!"?

Will it actually fly? Firefly/Serenity creator Joss Whedon has never heard of Underhill, who originally began campaigning to continue Firefly in 2003. Underhill says he won't do it without Whedon's consent, but it seems unlikely Whedon would let somebody he hasn't worked with continue his creation.

But what isn't discussed is how such a big move in broadcast happens. Local TV stations are affiliates for national networks, and this could leave affiliates all over the country scrambling for programming, much like they scrambled several years ago when UPN and the WB debuted. Could we be returning to the days when the low budget local TV station has no affiliate and plays nothing but reruns and old movies? Or, more likely, will another network step up to provide content to all those affiliates?

1) Every named character in the show has an incredible issue to deal with: Daniel the priest is addicted to vicadin, his wife is a borderline alcoholic, his daughter was just arrested for drug dealing to finance her manga comic, his oldest son is gay, his adopted Asian son is having sex with the daughter of a hoity-toity couple in the church who happen to be racist and manipulative, his brother-in-law just embezzled $3 million dollars from the church and ran off with his secretary, leaving his wife all alone--but wait, he was actually having at threesome with his wife and secretary until he turns up dead and the wife and secretary get together until the secretary runs away. Got all that? Plus, rather than calling the cops about the embezzled funs, Daniel goes to his Catholic priest friend with mob connections who find the money and blackmail the church. Oh, and we're not done: Daniel's maid smokes pot, his mother has alzheimer's and don't recognize her husband, who is having an affair with Daniel's bishop, who is also becoming addicted to vicadin.

2) The Christian morals presented in the show are pretty weak. I can handle seeing a priest with an addiction problem. Nobody's perfect and we've all got flaws. But when said priest is counceling an engagec couple and asks about their sex life, he not only doesn't flinch about them having pre-marital sex, he doesn't flinch when they explain that she has to be stoned in order to have sex, and then he makes jokes about them "living in sin." I realize the guy's an Episcopal priest and we won't be coming close to conservative values, but c'mon. Episcopalians may not have a problem with homosexuality, but I'm pretty sure adultery is still a problem.

The one upside to the show is Jesus. He often feels tacked on, unlike the God characters in Joan of Arcadia, but he does have a nice role. He tries to help Daniel with his addiction, sometimes with a simple reminder, sometimes by offering a lime Lifesaver. He's a hippie Jesus and I wouldn't say his theology is right on ("He's a kid, let him go"--the unsaid part is that he's going to have sex with the daughter of the WASPy family, not exactly something Jesus should be standing up for), but he does present an interesting and rare look at Jesus in primetime TV. While many Christians are up in arms over the show (Andrew Careaga has a great post about that), that's at least something.

There's even a lovely cartoon and a script doctor going zen over it. Snakes on a plane, man.